Govt agencies, corporations biggest tax dodgers, BIR says

GOVERNMENT agencies, state-owned corporations and city governments are among the biggest tax dodgers, according to Internal Revenue.

Those state entities had failed to remit “hundreds of millions of pesos” in taxes to the national government, Internal Revenue Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres told reporters over the weekend.

“There are several government entities that are not remitting taxes to the [bureau],” Tan-Torres said.

“Our attempts to persuade them have been futile… We will file estafa cases against them.”

He would not say which agencies faced lawsuits, but data from the Commission on Audit showed government agencies and corporations owed P18.65 billion in taxes in 2007. National Power Corp. owed more than half of the total or P10.5 billion.

The tax arrears for 2007 included P12.36 billion from government-owned and-controlled corporations, P2.3 billion from national agencies, and P1.18 billion from local governments.

National Power Corp. aside, the other state-owned companies with unpaid taxes as of 2007 were the Philippine Gaming and Amusement Corp.(P524 million), Development Bank of the Philippines (P234 million), Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (P213 million), Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (P204 million), and Local Water Utilities Administration (P192 million).